1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a sheet counting apparatus, a sheet counting method and a transaction apparatus being contained in an automatic dealing apparatus such as an automated-teller machine (ATM) or an automatic ticket dispenser for counting the number of sheets.
2. Description of the Related Art
A bill counter for counting the number of bills as sheets is placed in a transport passage of the paying-in side and a transport passage of the paying-out side. As an example, a structure on the paying-out side in a related art will be discussed.
In the related art, in paying-out processing, bills are separated and paid out one by one from a paying-out section of a cartridge. In this case, bills paid out in an overlap state because of a separation failure, skewed bills, or broken bills cannot be checked for validity in a validation section or cannot be counted in a count section and are collected, and stored in a reject collection box without undergoing paying-out processing.
Since the number of rejected bills is unknown, there is a problem of making it impossible to manage the balance of cash in the apparatus.
To solve such a problem, counters, for example, as described in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. Hei. 11-120414 and Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. Hei. 5-46842 are already invented.
The counter described in the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. Hei. 11-120414 comprises a thickness sense mechanism placed at an intermediate point of a transport passage. Thickness sense mechanism comprises a sense roller, which is supported rotationably by a reference roller rotated with drive means, for directly measuring the thickness of a passed-through bill by a proper press force. Displacement of the sense roller indicating the thickness of the bill is measured using an angle sensor, as the rotation angle of a support shaft of the sense roller.
In such a configuration, the number of overlapped bills in transport among the paid-out bills can be determined. However, in the structure in the related art, the thickness sense mechanism measures only the thickness of a specific single line in a transport direction of each bill. Thus if the bill is skewed, broken, or torn, the number of bills cannot be determined; this is a problem.
The counter described in the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No, Hei. 5-46842 uses both a thickness sense mechanism and read means such as an image reader. Thickness sense mechanism senses the thickness of a bill. The read means reads the outer shape of overlapped bills in transport and extracts the pattern of each bill based on the image of the outer shape. Thus the number of bills is determined.
However, in the structure in this related art, it is also difficult to determine the number of bills because of change in the outer shape caused by breaking or tearing the bills. Further, since outer shape extraction processing from an image (pattern extraction processing based on the outer shape image) is required, processing is intricate and unstable and is inferior in practical use.
Such problems are not limited to paying-out processing or bills and are also common to paying-in processing and other sheets.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a sheet counting apparatus, a sheet counting method and a transaction apparatus capable of determining the number of passage sheets even in various transport patterns where an overlap in transport, a skew, a fold, or a break occurs.
It is another object of the invention to provide a sheet counting apparatus and a transaction apparatus for making it possible to determine the number of sheets based on the length of each sheet in the length direction thereof rather than the outer shape of the sheet, facilitate computation processing to determine the number of sheets, and measure in real time. The sheet counting apparatus and the transaction apparatus can also effectively count the number of sheets transported at high speed.
According to the invention, there is provided a sheet counting apparatus for counting the number of sheets, comprising a plurality of thickness detection units for detecting the thickness of a sheet passing through a transport passage. In the sheet counting apparatus, the plurality of the thickness detection units are separately placed on the transport passage, wherein waveform outputs from the plurality of the thickness detection units, which provided by detecting the thicknesses of predetermined parts of sheets passing through the transport passage, are compared with waveform data previously stored in a storage unit, and the number of sheets passing through the transport passage is determined.
According to the configuration, the thicknesses of the sheets passing through the transport passage are detected separately by the thickness detection units separately provided at predetermined parts, and the waveform outputs provided by the plurality of the thickness detection units are compared with the waveform data, so that if an overlap in transport, a skew, a fold, or a break occurs in the passage sheets, the number of the sheets can also be determined.
It is preferable that the sheet counting apparatus further comprises an image pickup unit for picking up an image of each sheet passing through the transport passage, wherein when a sheet is determined to be broken or folded based on the waveforms provided by the thickness detection units and image pickup information provided by the image pickup unit, the number of sheets passing through the transport passage is determined by using the image pickup information.
According to the configuration, if it is hard to determine the number of passage sheets based only on the waveform outputs provided by the plurality of the thickness detection units, the image pickup information provided by the image pickup unit is used for processing, whereby it is made possible to determine the number of sheets and particularly the sheet counting apparatus becomes useful when a single-sheet fold occurs in the length direction of the sheet or a sheet is broken in the vicinity of the center of the sheet.
It is also preferable that when the number of passage sheets calculated based on the waveform output provided by one of the thickness detection units differs from that calculated based on the waveform output provided by any other thickness detection unit, the number of passage sheets is determined by using length information in the sheet length direction provided as the image pickup information provided by the image pickup unit.
According to the configuration, if the waveforms from the plurality of the thickness detection units differ and it is hard to determine the number of passage sheets based only on the waveform outputs, the length information in the sheet length direction in the image pickup information is also used for integrated processing, whereby it is made possible to determine the number of sheets and particularly the sheet counting apparatus becomes useful, when a single-sheet fold occurs in the length direction of the sheet.
It is preferable that the sheet counting apparatus further comprises an output unit for outputting information to the effect that the number of sheets is undefined when the number of passage sheets cannot be determined.
According to the configuration, the output unit outputs the information indicating that the number of sheets is undefined, so that when the number of sheets cannot be determined, appropriate processing can be executed. That is, in the related art, determination of the number of sheets is ambiguous and it is hard to determine the number of sheets, but the configuration makes it possible to distinctly determine whether or not the number of sheets can be determined.
To deal with paid-out bills based on the information output indicating that the number of bills is undefined, the bills may be collected or the person in charge may be informed of the fact; to deal with paid-in bills, the bills maybe rejected.
It is preferable that the thickness detection units detect the center and both end parts of each passage sheet in the length direction thereof.
According to the configuration, if an overlap in transport, a skew, a fold, or a break occurs in the passage bills, the number of the bills can also be determined with the necessary minimum thickness detection unit.
According to the invention, there is provided a transaction apparatus comprising one of the sheet counting apparatus described above. According to the configuration, the number of bills can be managed smoothly.